Chapter 5 The Old Party Secretary's Request The dumplings were ready and placed on the table. Grandma also fried a small dish of peanuts for the old man to eat with his wine. The old man brought out his treasured sweet potato cake. "Yimin, would you like to drink something?" Zhou Yimin nodded: "Okay, I'll drink two glasses with you, Grandpa, but don't drink too much. Bring back two bottles of good wine next time. My dad still has a bottle of Moutai." When Zhou Yimin's father was mentioned, the old man suddenly became furious. "Don't even mention that bastard Xuhua." He had good wine but didn't know how to bring it back to honor his father. He's such a bastard. He's far inferior to his good grandson. I worked hard to support him in his studies and thought he would enjoy a good life. But he got married and forgot about his parents. After he went to the city, he rarely came back. Now it's even more outrageous. He ran off with the widow and went to help someone else. The only contribution that bastard made was giving them a cute grandson, so that they could finally have someone to rely on in their old age. Zhou Yimin tactfully changed the subject.
The old man can scold, but he can't. After all, Old Zhou has fulfilled his fatherly duties to him and it is impeccable. The fragrant peanuts and dumplings whetted everyone's appetite, especially Lai Fu and the other three little ones, who ate them voraciously. "Brother, can we still eat dumplings tonight?" the little girl Lai Fang asked naively. As I recall, we could only eat a few dumplings during the Chinese New Year, and they were not as delicious as the ones we have today. Lai Fu and Lai Cai couldn't help but look at their elder brother Zhou Yimin. Her mother glared at them and said, "You will have a share of the shit." One meal is not enough, I want to continue eating tonight. What are you thinking about? In the past, only landlords could eat like this, right? If your elder brother Yimin hadn’t come back, the wild vegetable group wouldn’t have been able to break in and eat. "Oh!" Sanxiao responded disappointedly. Zhou Yimin smiled and said, "We won't eat dumplings tonight, we'll eat meat." The three little guys' eyes suddenly lit up. Eating meat is great. The aunt's tone became more serious, and she said to her three children: "Go home for dinner tonight, you are not allowed to..." Zhou Yimin interrupted her: "Let's eat together!" Aunt Huang Lan didn't dare to respond, but instead stole a glance at Zhou Yimin's grandmother. The old lady said unhappily: "My grandson asked you to come, so come on!" It’s a good deal for you. "Okay! Thank you Yimin, thank you auntie." In fact, the couple didn't mind it. What mattered most was their three children. They wanted to give them as much as possible, so they agreed shamelessly.
After eating, Uncle San prepared to go to work. He hadn’t eaten so full in a long time. Zhou Yimin followed him out and gave his uncle a cigarette. "Uncle San, I'll be away from here in the future. I'll trouble you to take good care of my grandparents." Zhou Xuqiang took a puff and said with a smile, "Hey! Do I need you to tell me? Don't worry! I'll take care of this place in the countryside, don't worry." Just then, someone in the distance was beating a gong rapidly. Zhou Xuqiang's face changed, and he quickly said to Zhou Yimin: "Yimin, Third Uncle won't talk to you for now. Shangshui Village probably intercepted the flow of water again." Now, water is life! The wheat in the wheat field is heading, and water shortage will seriously affect the harvest. The heading stage is not only the second growth period of wheat, it plays a decisive role in the later formation of wheat ears and grains, but it is also the critical period of wheat's demand for water. It is necessary to water the wheat well during flowering and filling. In addition to wheat, the village also grows corn, and at the same critical moment, Zhou Yimin also followed behind to watch the fun. When passing by the wheat fields, I found that they were already cracked. No wonder the villagers were anxious. The food supply in the village was basically exhausted, and they were just waiting for this wheat harvest to survive! There is almost no water in the small river that flows through Zhoujiazhuang at present. Soon, the young and middle-aged men of Zhoujiazhuang gathered together, and they were all furious, holding "weapons" in their hands. In addition to farm tools, there were even guns. In those days, the village had guns, even cannons, and sometimes the fight between two villages could easily evolve into a battle. Led by the old branch secretary, the people of Zhoujiazhuang marched toward Shangshui Village in a mighty force, with the intention of bringing punishment upon the people. Zhou Yimin was still thinking about the problem when the old branch secretary came over. "Yimin, I heard that you work as a buyer in a steel plant?" Zhou Yimin looked up at the old Party branch secretary, smiled and nodded: "Yes! If our village has anything to sell in the future, you can come to me. The price will definitely be higher than the purchase price of the supply and marketing cooperative." In fact, he also knew that Zhoujiazhuang didn't have much to offer at this stage. There wasn't enough food in the village, so how could there be any extra food to sell? "Can it be exchanged for food? Cornmeal will do." the old branch secretary asked again. Zhou Yimin was a little surprised: "What do you want in exchange?" "If possible, I will organize some people to go into the mountains tomorrow to see if we can hunt a wild boar." He was really forced into a corner, as the village was running out of food. Now he ordered the canteen to put as many wild vegetables as possible. The wild boars in the mountains are not easy to deal with, but in order to avoid starving to death, we have to take the risk. "Do you want sweet potatoes? I can exchange them for more." Zhou Yimin browsed around the store and found cornmeal, but it was different from the cornmeal of this era. It did not have corn cobs added. It was corn flour made from pure corn kernels. The cheapest is undoubtedly sweet potato, which costs only 1 cent per pound, and you can buy 10 pounds for 1000 yuan. Of course, he couldn't give the village this price. You know, sweet potatoes sold for three cents in the grain store, and more than five cents in the black market. Even so, it may not be available.
As soon as whole grains like sweet potatoes appear, they are immediately sold out. He could give Zhoujiazhuang a slightly lower price, but it must not be too much lower than the normal price, otherwise it would be very troublesome in the future. In fact, even if he sold it to Zhoujiazhuang at a price of five cents per pound, the old branch secretary and his men would still be happy to accept it. Besides, Zhou Yimin had no intention of doing charity. He also needed to make money, otherwise when his balance was gone, he would only be drooling over the items in the store. The old Party secretary said without hesitation: "Yes, sweet potatoes are good!" Anything they could exchange for extra food would be what their village needed most. He then asked, "How much can I get in exchange?" "That depends on how big the wild boar is. If it weighs a hundred kilograms, I'll try my best to help you change it to about four thousand kilograms." The old branch secretary was very happy. You know, even if you use food coupons to buy sweet potatoes at designated food stores, 100 yuan can only buy more than 3,000 kilograms. If you go to the black market, 100 yuan can only buy about 2,000 kilograms. That's how hard it is to buy. A wild boar weighing 100 kilograms normally sells for less than 100 yuan. Wild boar meat is cheaper than domestic pigs, has less fat, and is tougher. However, supplies are scarce now, especially food and meat. As long as they can be sold on the black market, they can be sold for two yuan per pound. No matter how you calculate it, if their village were asked to exchange a wild boar weighing 100 kilograms, it would definitely not be able to exchange it for 4,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes. "Okay, wait for our news. Yimin, I thank you on behalf of Zhoujiazhuang!" "Secretary, you are too polite. I am also from Zhoujiazhuang." After hearing what Zhou Yimin said, the old Party secretary applauded loudly: "Good! Well said!" (End of this chapter)